Running Out of Time
by PolkadottedPandas
Summary: Running, panting, hands out reached feeling around. The red emergency light flashing and alarm blaring around us making it harder to concentrate. I ducked down around the nearest container and pulled my phone out. I have only twenty minutes and if I don't do this right i'm going to die here... and no one will know what happened to me... The clock keeps ticking down...
1. Chapter 1

_Running, panting, hands out reached feeling around. The red emergency light flashing and alarm blaring around us making it harder to concentrate. I ducked down around the nearest container and pulled my phone out. The bright screen blinding me for a second before I focused on punching in the numbers. Everything was in a different language, but I knew the number by heart. Twenty minutes... that's all I had. Twenty minutes to try and save my life this time, and if not... I had to go another three hours before I could get another chance._

 _Breathing heavily I scrolled through the phone trying to decipher the french and figure out where the call log was, panicking as the timer ticked down. Ten minutes left. I cursed under my breath for how much time I wasted running and started punching in number. 719- I can hear shouting close by. Glancing around I can see the lasers sweeping down the hallways. Shit. I have to move. I pocket the phone and brush my hands along the walls once more, moving farther from the men in suits and losing precious time. I'm not going to make it... I'm going to die here... And no one is ever going to know what happened to me._

"Maaaaaxxxxxx" I blink quickly and look up, connecting the hand waving in front of my face to the arm connected to my best friend. "Where'd you go just now? You completely freaked when the fire alarm went off. You okay?" Nudge looks at me with such concern I can't help but feel guilty.

"I'm sorry... I don't know what happened. Just with the alarm- and people rushing-" She cuts me off with a quick but tight hug, sighing in my ear. "Sweetie, it's been ten years since the incident. You're still suffering majorly from it, why don't you go see someone to help you deal with it all? No one would blame you for seeking help, you know we're all here for you and support you."

"I know. I will" I stand up from my chair and meet her look, the look that says she doesn't believe me one bit. "I promise I will go see someone tomorrow. I want to be done with this already, it's still causing Nick and I problems and I'm not okay with it." Her chocolate eyes soften and her shoulders droop,

"Hun, go talk to someone to help yourself. It's causing you and Nick problems because you still just about take his head off when he touches you. But don't do it for him, do it for yourself. We all just want to see you get better. Those men are either dead or locked up. You have nothing to worry about other than taking care of yourself and your beautiful family. So take care of yourself or so help me woman!" 

I laugh at her attempt at being intimidating. At only 5'6 and 110 pounds, Nudge is anything BUT intimidating. She and I could be twins if it weren't for her darker skin tone and unruly curls. Whereas she has the nice mocha look and (sometimes) beautiful curls, I have the slight tan and bleached hair look going for me. She's a talker and I'm more observe and intervene when necessary, she's a shopper and I'm more get in and grab what you need then bail type. We even each other out nicely and ever since third grade when I helped her get her designer backpack back from a kid who stole it, we've been tied at the hip ever since.

"I will, I promise you. I love you for caring so much. Now let's get out of here before James makes us stay later after that horrid fire drill."

"Ohhhh we can stop by Old Navy on the way home! They have this huge sale going on and it's going to be super awesome and we can get you some more clothes and maybe a dress and -" I slap my hand over her mouth and watch her eyes get big with surprise. "Nudge, I love you to pieces, but you will never get me into a dress and I'm not going shopping. You're going to have to drive home alone because I have a doctor to find, remember?" She mumbles something inaudible against my hand and I can't help but giggle at her attempts to continue ranting. If anything, her rant is a nice distraction from the fact that I went back to that place yet again.. I can't put off getting help any longer.

 **Okay, so this is based off a nightmare I had one night that my best friend told me to turn into a story when I told him about it. So that's what I'm doing. I'm super into creepy things and a lot of my motivation for every single one of my stories has been based off a nightmare I had. So, hopefully I can turn it into something positive for others to enjoy as I certainly did not. But hey, that's how Stephen King does it so why not give it a shot. Hopefully i still have some followers out there paying attention. I'm going to try and update at least three times a week but with college courses starting soon I can 100% guarantee that but I will do my absolute best and will not be abandoning this story until it is over, I swear it. To be completely honest... it feels really good to be back and writing again. So review and let me know your first thoughts! This is not going to be a typical Maximum Ride Fanfic. They won't have wings in this one.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so I'm still figuring out exactly how I want this story to go. I have an overall idea and i know how I want it to end. It's just that connecting middle part I need to figure out still. What do you guys think so far though? I know it isn't much. The middle I'm thinking is mostly going to be Max seeing a counselor and doing a bunch of flash back type scenes.**

 _It started off as any simple night. I went to a party with a friend, friend got drunk and wandered off and I went searching for her. I had told people where we were, I had told people I went in search of Emily. I had taken all the precautions by telling someone if we weren't back in a certain amount of time to come look for us. None of that matters though if you're taken somewhere you've never been before with no way of calling for help because everything's in a different language._

 _We were followed by a truck, at first we didn't think anything of it but then we started walking more in the tree line. What we didn't know was that they expected that. We were so busy watching the truck behind us, we didn't notice the guys that snuck up beside us until we had rags over our mouths._

 _We woke up in a warehouse. One of those giant ones where they store the cargo containers you see on ships. Random lights swung here and there and there was a group of maybe twenty of us. There was a table directly under one of the lights with a phone for each of us and a paper with instructions in the middle._

 ** _You'll have three hours to think of a number to call. Then twenty minutes in which the phones will turn on, after the twenty minutes are up the phone will shut off automatically only to restart the three hour timer. We suggest you think of a number, those three hours will be anything but pleasant. Good luck -Darwins"_**

 _"Who the fuck are the Darwins?" I look up to see one of the guys I hadn't met before staring at the sign. "Darwin? As in Natural Selection Charles Darwin?" Another guy looks at him like one would look at the dumb blonde in a horror movie._

 _"So where did they grab you?" A girl to my left with bright blonde hair and startling blue eyes is looking at me. She looks maybe 15 but her scared expression makes her appear younger. "I was looking for my friend. She wandered off from our group. I got snatched from behind after a truck was following me." We go around the room explaining how we all ended up here. The blonde girl, named Angel, was taken from work while taking out the trash. The guy who didn't know Darwin, Chris, was taken while running drills on a football field and the one who responded to him, Mike, was taken after dropping off his girlfriend. The rest of the room either doesn't speak English or has already run off and are trying all the doors._

 _Mike is in the middle of trying to turn on all the phones when a loud alarm like buzzer goes off. All the regular lights shut off and a red flashing one comes on, plunging us into darkness every other second and then glowing red. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Angel is covering both ears and crouching under the table all the phones are on. I crouch down next to her to try and pull her out right as doors straight in front of us bust open and at least ten men come running out in full riot gear. Mike and Chris lock eyes before one each grabbing Angel and I and dragging us to our feet and down the nearest hallway._

 _We hide behind the closest container and peak around the corner. "This must be the start of the first three hours." Mike shouts in our ears. Watching the men, they slowly walk forward towards the table. Another one of the kids that had been in the group sprints out from behind a cargo container and makes a beeline for the door they had come out of. Right as he's within ten feet, several red dots appear all over his back. Before I have time to process what they are, his body is lying face down on the ground, a pool of blood slowly spreading out around his body and the holes now piercing his back._

 _"Oh my god, oh my god. They have guns. They just killed that kid. Holy shit you guys. Holy fuck" Chris drops to his knees and starts rocking back and forth, hands over his head and a deer in the headlights look. Right as Mike is about to pull him to his feet and shake him out of it, all our phones buzz in our hands. Glancing down in the panic of everything I look up at Mike and show him my screen._

 _ **2 hours 58 minutes: Darwins 1, targets 19**_

 _His face pales, "They're hunting us down one by one..."_ __


	3. Chapter 3

_Running, panting, hands out reached feeling around. The red emergency light flashing and alarm blaring around us making it harder to concentrate. I ducked down around the nearest container and pulled my phone out. The bright screen blinding me for a second before I focused on punching in the numbers. Everything was in a different language, but I knew the number by heart. Twenty minutes... that's all I had. Twenty minutes to try and save my life this time, and if not... I had to go another three hours before I could get another chance._

 _Breathing heavily I scrolled through the phone trying to decipher the french and figure out where the call log was, panicking as the timer ticked down. Ten minutes left. I cursed under my breath for how much time I wasted running and started punching in number. 719- I can hear shouting close by. Glancing around I can see the lasers sweeping down the hallways. Shit. I have to move. I pocket the phone and brush my hands along the walls once more, moving farther from the men in suits and losing precious time. I'm not going to make it... I'm going to die here... And no one is ever going to know what happened to me._

 _We had been in this warehouse going on ten hours now. We'd gotten three chances to call someone we knew to come save us but each time the phone unlocked everything was switched and in a completely new language. It took half if not more of our twenty minutes to figure out where the damn dial pad was, add that to still having to run and hide and we basically only got a minute or two to call for help. And even then, what would we be able to get out?_

 _ **"Hi, yeah so I need you to shut up and don't ask why I'm calling from a random number you don't recognize and listen. I've been kidnapped, don't know where I'm being help but it's a warehouse, guys are hunting us down but I haven't seen any of their faces. There was twenty of us, but now there's only twelve. Come help me please or I'm going to die. By the way, you won't be able to call this number back, I can only call out, can't receive calls. Okay, please hurry!"**_

 _Yeah, good luck getting all that out while running for your life, hiding from all the other survivors, AND having everything be in a different language. Fat chance. But we still all tried anyways. Because false hope was better than no hope at all right?_

 _Over the last ten hours they creepy riot guys had slowly been making their way down the list of us in here. How many we started out with was about twenty give or take a few. Now? We were down to twelve with that number steadily getting lower. And we started turning against each other. We would shove each other out into the open if one of us got too close to another's hiding spot, or steal their phone because our battery had died and we were too afraid to run for the center and grab one from the table. Half the time we couldn't even see the "Darwins" because they would climb up in the rafters or in the cargo containers. Right before they got someone all you saw was their red light from their sights and you had about three seconds to move, move, move!_

 _Currently my little survivor group consisted of Angel, Mike, Chris and myself. We were the only ones that hadn't turned on each other - yet. Every time the phones turned on we each took a turn trying to call someone we knew while the others stood watch and moved us if necessary. So far, two of us had almost gotten a call out. Angel called her dad, but it went to voice mail, so she tried to be quick but started crying and only got as far as asking for help. Mike called his girlfriend but she wouldn't stop hysterically crying and asking where he was long enough for him to say, and currently if was my turn to try._

 _"Don't fuck this up Max." I glance up from my phone, the timer counting down before it turns on and look at Chris who is sweating and has his back slightly towards me, shielding me in a semi circle in our dark corner that so far has not been discovered. "You know what they say, third times the charm right?"_

 ** _5...4...3...2...1_**

 _"IT'S ON!" Everyone slightly turned to look at me as I started fumbling with the keys trying to navigate, this time it was in Chinese, fucking wonderful. "Hurry it up Max, we don't have all day for you to check your instagram!"_

 _"Oh shut it Mike, I'm working as fast as I can. I think I found it though."_

 _Clicking around had finally landed me on the dial page, now I just had to remember a number. Shit, think max, think. Who would answer an unknown number calling them? Nick maybe, but that was pushing it. We'd have to try. 719... "MAX MOVE" I jerked my head up to see a red light between my feet slowly sliding up my legs and higher. I lunged to the side and hit the next numbers 424 when a shot rang out right where I had just been._

 _Mike grabbed my arm and started dragging me, Angel in front and Chris behind, "Whatever you do, keep dialing." I nodded to Mike and looked back at the phone, shit, ten minutes left. I typed the remainder in the phone and held it to my ear, holding my breathe for a dial tone. It rang and I almost cried. But it kept ringing... I was running out of time. I checked that i had gotten the last four correctly just in case, 6209 glared back at me and I knew i had the right guy. Come on Nick, don't choose now to be a dick._

 ** _"This is Nick's phone, who is this?"_**

 _"Bridgett put nick on the phone now!" I hissed. Now was not the time to get into a fight over calling someone's boyfriend._

 ** _"Max, no. You need to stop calling Nick. It's getting sad really..."_** _I rolled my eyes as she droned on and heard a beeping coming from the phone. Crap five minutes._

 _"Listen Bridgett. I don't want your boyfriend. Tell him I've been kidnapped and I need him to call the cops and my parents PLEASE. Do not fight me on this, I'm not joking around. Just tell hi-" She hung up. Fuck._

 _I looked at Mike and Chris while holding the phone away from my face as the timer ran down to 0 and shook my head. I had no way of knowing if the message would go through or not, but I wasn't going to get my hopes up on Bridgett delivering the message. We were screwed for another three hours._

 **Review guys! Let me know what you think!**


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